WEBVTT NOTE 46. King Philip's War 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Volume 1, Chapter 46, King Philip's War 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Since the massacre of the Pequots in 1637, there had been no open warfare between whites and Indians in New England. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:22.000 The expansion of the white settlers encroached seriously on ancient Indian lands, hunting grounds and fisheries. 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Generally, the land was sold voluntarily by the Indians. 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:52.000 by the Indians. But, as previously noted, the Indians had no firm concept of private property and land, as landed property was held communally, and inalienably, by the tribe. The Indians, therefore, regarded the purchases as a form of lease, and thus could not help being hostile to the whites clearing the forest for agricultural purposes. 6 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.440 More justifiable was the Indian resentment at the white government's arrogant insistence 7 00:00:57.440 --> 00:01:05.160 on imposing white colonial laws and sovereignty over the Indians. Indians were hauled into 8 00:01:05.160 --> 00:01:12.180 white courts to settle disputes, even all-Indian disputes, and for failing to pay tribute to 9 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:20.180 obey such rigorous white laws, obviously incomprehensible to the Indians as observing the Sabbath and 10 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:27.940 not blaspheming. Blasphemy, in fact, was punishable by death. And particularly significant was 11 00:01:27.940 --> 00:01:35.100 the New Englanders' penchant for confiscating Indian land as punishment for Indian infractions. 12 00:01:35.100 --> 00:01:41.040 Furthermore, the Narragansett Indians, who had been induced by Roger Williams to remain 13 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:46.800 friendly during the Pequot War, were continually threatened by the Atherton Company's pressure 14 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:55.800 for Their Lands. The murder of the Narragansett chief, Meantanomo, had moreover gone unavenged 15 00:01:55.800 --> 00:02:01.520 because the Mohegan chief, Uncas, who had done the deed with the connivance of Massachusetts 16 00:02:01.520 --> 00:02:10.480 Bay, remained under white protection. In addition, the Mohegans, Shawtucks and Kawisets, Indians 17 00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:16.320 in alliance with the whites, were protected by the white governments, though they repeatedly 18 00:02:16.320 --> 00:02:22.400 pillaged and murdered the Narragansett and Nipmuc Indians of southern New England. 19 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:30.480 In 1660, the venerable Indian chief Massasoit died. As chief of the Wampanoags of western 20 00:02:30.480 --> 00:02:37.080 Plymouth on the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay, Massasoit had saved the original pilgrims 21 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:44.440 from starvation and had sheltered Roger Williams in his lonely trek to Narragansett Bay. He 22 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:50.120 He was now succeeded by his elder son, Wemsutta, or Alexander. 23 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:57.000 At this point, Plymouth began a series of outrageous harassments of the Wampanoags, 24 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:03.080 who had by this time been driven into the Mount Hope Peninsula on Narragansett Bay, 25 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:06.200 now the site of Bristol, Rhode Island. 26 00:03:06.200 --> 00:03:12.880 On mere rumor, and with no real evidence, Plymouth ordered Alexander into the general 27 00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:19.880 Alexander went to court in 1662 to defend himself against the absurdly vague charge of plotting mischief. 28 00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:32.880 Having successfully defended himself against this accusation, Alexander unfortunately died, giving rise to suspicion among some Indians that he had been poisoned by the Whites. 29 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:40.800 Shortly afterward, Alexander's successor, his brother, Metacom or Philip, was similarly 30 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:47.080 hauled into court to defend himself against similar rumor-based charges. He, too, was 31 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:54.880 found innocent. In 1671, vague rumors about Philip's unfriendliness toward the whites 32 00:03:54.880 --> 00:04:01.280 were again heard, and at this time the Plymouth magistrates wanted to adopt the hardline policy 33 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:06.440 of Striking Hard and Destroying the Wampanoags. 34 00:04:06.440 --> 00:04:12.080 The other colonies held Plymouth back, however, and persuaded the colony to agree to a meeting 35 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:18.300 in April of Philip and several leading Massachusetts citizens, as well as Plymouth officials at 36 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:19.300 Taunton. 37 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:25.000 Philip, incidentally, insisted that Roger Williams be present as a guarantee of fair 38 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:28.820 treatment, and this request was granted. 39 00:04:28.820 --> 00:04:34.780 At Taunton, the Plymouth authorities made the arrogant demand that the Wampanoags render 40 00:04:34.780 --> 00:04:41.620 themselves defenseless by surrendering all their arms to Plymouth, and this despite the 41 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:49.820 fact that no evidence against Philip was ever revealed. Seventy guns were surrendered. In 42 00:04:49.820 --> 00:04:56.980 addition to this humiliation, Philip and several secums were again forced to appear in September 43 00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:03.860 and gratuitously subjected to the insulting warning that he must amend his ways if he 44 00:05:03.860 --> 00:05:10.320 expected peace, and that if he went on in his refractory way, he must expect to smart 45 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:17.740 for it. The Indians again submitted and consented to pay a yearly tribute of five wolves' heads 46 00:05:17.740 --> 00:05:19.620 to the colony. 47 00:05:19.620 --> 00:05:26.380 Three years later, the harassment by Plymouth of the Wampanoags came to a climax. 48 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:32.380 Casamon, a Christian or praying Indian, who had once been employed by Philip as a private 49 00:05:32.380 --> 00:05:39.940 secretary, now informed Plymouth of suspicious goings on and possible conspiracies of some 50 00:05:39.940 --> 00:05:42.260 kind at Mount Hope. 51 00:05:42.260 --> 00:05:48.060 Once again, Plymouth proposed to haul Philip into general court to answer privately disclosed 52 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:58.060 This time, Philip heard of the proceedings, and in March 1675 came of his own accord to the court to defend himself. 53 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:08.060 The authorities admitted they had no evidence of Philip's guilt, but were displeased that not all of the Wampanoag's arms had been surrendered. 54 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:15.060 They again harried Philip with the warning that if they heard any further rumors, even unproven ones, 55 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:22.060 and even unproven ones, they would insist on confiscating all of the Wampanoag's arms. 56 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:28.060 Shortly after Philip left Plymouth, the informer, Cosimon, was found murdered. 57 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:38.060 Before a jury composed of whites and Indians, three Wampanoags were tried, convicted and executed for the murder, 58 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:43.060 albeit on the flimsy evidence of only one Indian eyewitness. 59 00:06:43.060 --> 00:06:51.060 The execution was carried out despite Roger Williams' warning of the untrustworthiness of such Indian testimony. 60 00:06:51.060 --> 00:06:58.060 Here was the final straw in the accumulation of humiliations and provocations heaped upon Philip, 61 00:06:58.060 --> 00:07:07.060 capped by a further warning from Plymouth that Philip send away many Indians of other tribes who had now come to Mount Hope. 62 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:10.060 The provocations had gone far enough. 63 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:15.660 But five eminent Quakers, leaders of Rhode Island, headed by the Deputy Governor John 64 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:22.660 Easton, now tried to persuade Philip, in a final peace conference, to agree to impartial 65 00:07:22.660 --> 00:07:25.180 arbitration. 66 00:07:25.180 --> 00:07:30.620 Philip was willing to arbitrate, but was also convinced that the other colonies would never 67 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:31.620 agree. 68 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:38.940 A few days later, on June 20, the Wampanoags retaliated for the execution with a raid on 69 00:07:38.940 --> 00:07:44.700 In the neighboring town of Swansea, burning a couple of houses. In a few days, the raids 70 00:07:44.700 --> 00:07:51.700 on Swansea escalated into a few killings. King Philip's war had now begun. A joint force 71 00:07:52.640 --> 00:07:58.060 from Plymouth and Boston now captured Mount Hope, but the Indians managed to escape from 72 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:04.460 the peninsula. Philip proceeded to burn and ravage several Plymouth towns, Dartmouth, 73 00:08:04.460 --> 00:08:34.460 In the middle of July, the war took a more ominous turn. The Nipmuc Indians in Massachusetts entered the war and ravaged the Massachusetts town of Menlin and Brookfield. They successfully ambushed an armed troop sent for a peace parley. All-out war now commenced. Town after town was devastated. The northern Connecticut Valley towns of Northfield and Deerfield in Massachusetts had to be abandoned. 74 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:42.020 The Temporarily Reactivated New England Confederation met on September 9 and decided on a united 75 00:08:42.020 --> 00:08:44.820 and intense war effort. 76 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:51.060 The three colonies agreed to contribute 1,000 armed men to the United Force, and a quota 77 00:08:51.060 --> 00:08:54.980 was assigned to each colony. 78 00:08:54.980 --> 00:09:03.380 Massachusetts would supply 527 men, Connecticut 315, and Plymouth, which had started it all, 79 00:09:03.380 --> 00:09:04.380 158. 80 00:09:04.380 --> 00:09:18.380 The military conscription reached every male between 16 and 60. Massachusetts decreed death for any refusal to serve, and Connecticut prohibited the emigration of any eligible person. 81 00:09:18.380 --> 00:09:24.380 The following spring Massachusetts also forced its citizens into farm labor draft. 82 00:09:24.380 --> 00:09:38.380 The officials were authorized to impress men for the carrying on of the husbandry of such persons as were called off from the same into the service, who had not sufficient help of their own left at home to manage the same. 83 00:09:38.380 --> 00:09:51.380 Any labor conscript who failed to report was fined, and if this failure was accompanied with refractoriness or contempt upon authority, then the malfactor was liable to the death penalty. 84 00:09:51.380 --> 00:10:00.380 All men driven from their homes by the Indians were to be conscripted automatically for military duty in the places of their refuge. 85 00:10:00.380 --> 00:10:09.380 All trade with the Indians, not on government account, was forbidden on penalty of confiscation of all the trader's property. 86 00:10:09.380 --> 00:10:18.380 And finally, no person in Massachusetts was to leave the town of his residence without getting the permission of the local military committee. 87 00:10:18.380 --> 00:10:31.380 It would not be surprising if some of the more reflective citizens of Massachusetts began to wonder who their enemy was, the Indians or their own government. 88 00:10:31.380 --> 00:10:41.380 The New England Confederation in the summer of 1675 faced the question, should it limit the war to its existing confines, 89 00:10:41.380 --> 00:10:57.180 Bearing in mind the usual fight attitude toward the Indians, we are not surprised that New 90 00:10:57.180 --> 00:11:00.340 England chose the latter alternative. 91 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:06.140 The particular problem was the land-rich Narragansetts, by far the most powerful of the New England 92 00:11:06.140 --> 00:11:07.900 Indians. 93 00:11:07.900 --> 00:11:14.340 Despite harassment, the traditionally friendly Narragansetts showed no sign of joining Philip's 94 00:11:14.340 --> 00:11:22.020 anti-white crusade. And even the almost fanatically pro-Puritan historian of New England, John 95 00:11:22.020 --> 00:11:29.220 Palfrey, admits that the Confederation found not one scintilla of evidence of any sort 96 00:11:29.220 --> 00:11:34.700 of conspiracy between Philip and the other warring Indian tribes, let alone the peaceful 97 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:39.860 Narragansetts Provocation against the Narragansetts had been 98 00:11:39.860 --> 00:11:48.860 particularly virulent in early 1675. The son of Uncas, the white-protected Mohegan chieftain, 99 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:55.260 murdered a relative of the Narragansett chief, Kanonchit. Yet the whites refused to take 100 00:11:55.260 --> 00:12:01.300 any action to punish the murderers. They refused, as well, to take the case to an impartial 101 00:12:01.300 --> 00:12:08.060 of Justice, and to permit any armed action against UNCUS, thereby closing every door 102 00:12:08.060 --> 00:12:10.900 of redress to the Narragansetts. 103 00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:18.020 In July 1675, soon after Philip launched his attack, the Confederation Commissioners of 104 00:12:18.020 --> 00:12:24.060 Massachusetts and Connecticut sent a strong military force to negotiate a new treaty of 105 00:12:24.060 --> 00:12:26.540 friendship with the Narragansetts. 106 00:12:26.540 --> 00:12:33.380 By mid-July the Narragansetts had signed a treaty agreeing not to permit Wampanoag invasion 107 00:12:33.380 --> 00:12:40.460 of their land and to turn over to the whites any Wampanoag refugees. 108 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:47.780 By October it was learned that the Narragansetts had instead harbored some Indian refugees. 109 00:12:47.780 --> 00:12:53.300 Though a breach of the treaty, the Narragansett decision to give haven to refugees of war 110 00:12:53.300 --> 00:13:02.300 was hardly a casus belli, indeed offering asylum to refugees from war is a simple humanitarian act. 111 00:13:02.300 --> 00:13:08.300 But the commissioners of the New England Confederation did not react this way. 112 00:13:08.300 --> 00:13:16.300 Instead, they delivered to the Narragansetts an ultimatum that if the refugees were not delivered up, 113 00:13:16.300 --> 00:13:21.300 the utmost severities of war would be visited upon them. 114 00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:34.300 The Confederation promptly raised another 1,000 men under the command of Plymouth's Governor Winslow and marched in a war of aggression against the Narragansetts. 115 00:13:34.300 --> 00:13:40.300 This action triggered a war hysteria that swept Boston and the rest of New England. 116 00:13:40.300 --> 00:13:48.300 Even some harmless, praying Indians living near Boston were set upon and murdered by white mobs. 117 00:13:48.300 --> 00:14:00.300 The highly respected Daniel Gouken, who was friend and superintendent of the Christian Indians, was told that it would not be safe for him to appear on the streets of Boston. 118 00:14:00.300 --> 00:14:16.300 In a final flurry, Massachusetts again persecuted the Quakers. Some Puritans disseminated the notion that the Indian War was God's punishment of New England for relaxing its persecution of the adulterous Quakers. 119 00:14:16.300 --> 00:14:25.300 Other Puritans, characteristically, theorize that God was punishing New England for the new fashions in wigs and fancy hairdos. 120 00:14:25.300 --> 00:14:34.300 Winslow's march into the Narragansett country was made without the consent and against the will of the government of Rhode Island. 121 00:14:34.300 --> 00:14:39.300 Hence, the invasion was a flagrant violation of the Rhode Island Charter. 122 00:14:39.300 --> 00:14:46.100 But the confederation was heedless of this fact and heedless also of the devastation 123 00:14:46.100 --> 00:14:53.060 that this extension of the war to the Narragansetts would reek on the Rhode Island settlements. 124 00:14:53.060 --> 00:14:57.900 In fact, the Rhode Island government proposed to take the whole dispute to arbitration and 125 00:14:57.900 --> 00:15:06.900 the Narragansetts approved. Implacably, hard-line Plymouth refused. The Winslow forces invaded 126 00:15:06.900 --> 00:15:13.220 of Rhode Island, and by the typically white tactic against the Indians of surprise attack 127 00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:20.820 on December 19, captured the main Narragansett fort at the later side of South Kingstown, 128 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:28.420 Rhode Island. In this terrible swamp fight, about 1,000 Indians were slaughtered, including 129 00:15:28.420 --> 00:15:34.940 some 300 women and children. This was the turning point of the war, as it broke the 130 00:15:34.940 --> 00:16:04.940 and the Great Narragansett Power. How had Rhode Island arrived at its peace policy? During the late 1650s and 1660s, the Quakers had made enormous strides in converting a colony already individualistic and libertarian in spirit. In particular, the Quakers were dominant in Newport. In 1672, the increasingly irascible Roger Williams had once more called his old enemy 131 00:16:04.940 --> 00:16:11.500 and the litigious William Harris into court. This time the charge was disloyalty and high 132 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:18.220 treason for favoring Connecticut's claims to the Narragansett lands. At the same time 133 00:16:18.220 --> 00:16:24.260 the administration of Governor Benedict Arnold, in league with Williams, passed rigorous measures 134 00:16:24.260 --> 00:16:30.520 to suppress agitation against high taxes, largely by the Quakers, and to confiscate 135 00:16:30.520 --> 00:16:35.600 The Property of Disloyal Plotters Against the State 136 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:41.580 It was clear that Roger Williams had been outstripped as a champion of liberty and freedom of advocacy. 137 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:48.040 The result of Arnold's despotic act was an alliance between the two opposition groups, 138 00:16:48.040 --> 00:16:54.200 the Quakers and the Harris Forces, which jointly came to power in the Rhode Island elections 139 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.520 of May 1672. 140 00:16:57.520 --> 00:17:03.660 The world's first Quaker government, with Nicholas Easton, now a Quaker as governor, 141 00:17:03.660 --> 00:17:07.200 now embarked on a highly liberal course. 142 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:12.540 Harris was immediately released from prison and made an assistant of the province. 143 00:17:12.540 --> 00:17:18.980 The laws suppressing anti-tax agitators were quickly repealed as an invasion of the liberties 144 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:20.980 of the people. 145 00:17:20.980 --> 00:17:29.120 And in an Act of August 13, 1673, conscientious objectors were now exempted completely from 146 00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:34.420 military service for the first time in America. 147 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:41.100 The Act declared that since Rhode Island already refused to force Quakers or other conscientious 148 00:17:41.100 --> 00:17:48.160 objectors to take an oath, how much more ought such men forbear to compel their equal neighbors 149 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:53.060 Against Their Consciences, To Train, To Fight and To Kill. 150 00:17:53.060 --> 00:18:00.500 In detail, this historic act provided that no person, that is, or hereafter, shall be 151 00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:06.820 persuaded in his conscience that he cannot or ought not to train, to learn to fight, 152 00:18:06.820 --> 00:18:13.500 nor to war, nor to kill any person or persons, shall at any time be compelled against his 153 00:18:13.500 --> 00:18:43.500 During the Anglo-Dutch War, however, the Easton administration seriously compromised pacifist Quaker principles by instructing the 154 00:18:43.500 --> 00:18:49.580 and magistrates and town military officers to build the colony's defenses. 155 00:18:49.580 --> 00:18:55.020 And after the Dutch recaptured New York, the Quaker-dominated assembly gave authority to 156 00:18:55.020 --> 00:19:02.620 the governor to appoint military commanders and to provide military training for the citizens. 157 00:19:02.620 --> 00:19:09.060 In the polarization of ideology that took place, Roger Williams was pushed even further 158 00:19:09.060 --> 00:19:12.060 in a statist direction. 159 00:19:12.060 --> 00:19:28.060 When he had already shown himself many times to be willing to abandon the principle of freedom of speech and advocacy of political ideas, he now showed himself ready to abandon his most cherished principle, religious liberty. 160 00:19:28.060 --> 00:19:36.060 In the summer of 1672, the great founder of the Quakers, George Fox, visited Rhode Island. 161 00:19:36.060 --> 00:19:43.380 In August, following the visit, Roger Williams engaged in a four-day long great debate, first 162 00:19:43.380 --> 00:19:49.780 in Newport and then in Providence, with three of Fox's leading disciples. The public debate 163 00:19:49.780 --> 00:19:56.860 attracted large crowds and Williams rode all the way from Providence to Newport to participate. 164 00:19:56.860 --> 00:20:02.100 That Williams was bitterly opposed to the Quaker creed was, of course, his privilege 165 00:20:02.100 --> 00:20:08.740 and to be expected, but he also went so far as to call for moderate legal penalties against 166 00:20:08.740 --> 00:20:17.740 Quaker uncivilities, which should be restrained and punished. These incivilities, let us note, 167 00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:23.900 expressly included such harmless Quaker practices as refusing to take off their hats and using 168 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:30.700 the forms thee and thou. All these were examples to Williams of irreverence to superiors in 169 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:37.200 and Office, as was the Quaker refusal to bend the knee or bow the head to civil authority 170 00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:46.200 out of pretense that Christ amity, even in civil things, respecteth no man's person. 171 00:20:46.900 --> 00:20:52.740 Moreover the Quakers refused to perform the ordinary civil duties to the state. Williams 172 00:20:52.740 --> 00:20:57.640 also denounced the freedom of trade practiced by Quaker merchants in bootlegging liquor 173 00:20:57.640 --> 00:21:04.160 to the Indians. Here, Williams portrayed jealousy of his Quaker competitors in trading with 174 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:09.280 the Indians, for he denounced Quakers for selling ammunition and liquor to the Indians 175 00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:17.440 more cheaply than their competitors. All this was far from being a mere exaggeration uttered 176 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:24.480 in the heat of debate, for it was repeated in Williams' ensuing anti-Quaker pamphlet, 177 00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:32.660 George Fox digged out of his burrows. Here Williams again called for moderate legal punishment 178 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:38.460 of these crimes of disrespect to superiors and echoed the very argument of Reverend John 179 00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:45.160 Cotton against himself three decades before that such punishment would be as far from 180 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:53.300 persecution properly so called as that is a duty in command of God unto all mankind. 181 00:21:53.300 --> 00:21:59.420 It is no wonder that one of the debaters, William Edmundson, was moved to transgress the bounds 182 00:21:59.420 --> 00:22:07.040 of polite debate and rudely cry at Williams, old man, old man, for which, by the way, he 183 00:22:07.040 --> 00:22:12.860 was reprimanded by Coddington and other leading Quakers present. Perhaps Williams was angered 184 00:22:12.860 --> 00:22:19.200 far more by the apt reproof of William Harris, who reminded Williams of his former large 185 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.840 and the large profession of liberty of conscience. 186 00:22:22.840 --> 00:22:28.480 At any rate, Williams' abandonment of religious liberty had little impact on the citizens 187 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:34.640 of Rhode Island, who were more true to his original principles than was Williams himself. 188 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:41.280 In fact, Quaker conversions in the colony proceeded all the more rapidly after the debate. 189 00:22:41.280 --> 00:22:46.520 William Harris was soon converted, and even some of the venerable Samuel Gorton's followers 190 00:22:46.520 --> 00:22:52.440 were converted to the Quaker faith. And so Rhode Island came to have a Quaker government 191 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:57.980 at the start of King Philip's War with the now Quaker William Coddington governor since 192 00:22:57.980 --> 00:23:04.700 1674. It was a government that maintained Rhode Island's position against Connecticut 193 00:23:04.700 --> 00:23:11.940 land claims, but strongly insisted on a policy of neutrality and peace. It was also convinced 194 00:23:11.940 --> 00:23:18.580 that King Philip's War was an unnecessary conflict caused by the unfair treatment and 195 00:23:18.580 --> 00:23:24.900 persecution of the Indians by the other New England colonies. Now, despite the destruction 196 00:23:24.900 --> 00:23:31.900 of the Great Swamp Fight, Conanchet had managed to escape with seven hundred of his warriors 197 00:23:31.900 --> 00:23:38.420 when they proceeded to retaliate against Rhode Island, burning and devastating Warwick, Patuxet 198 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:45.800 and Providence. The Coddington administration now risked its own popularity by sticking 199 00:23:45.800 --> 00:23:52.760 to Quaker and Libertarian principle and refusing to levy taxes on everyone to engage in a 200 00:23:52.760 --> 00:23:58.740 costly defense of the mainland towns. The assembly decided that each town should provide 201 00:23:58.740 --> 00:24:06.500 for its own military security and in March 1676 urged the mainland citizens to take refuge 202 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:13.340 John Aquidnic Island, even promising the settlers land for each new family on the island. 203 00:24:13.340 --> 00:24:20.300 The Quakers also refused to repeal the exemption of conscientious objectors from the draft. 204 00:24:20.300 --> 00:24:27.100 The Rhode Island Assembly also provided that no Indian in the colony could be made a slave. 205 00:24:27.100 --> 00:24:31.980 Most of the mainlanders took advantage of the proposed refuge and were joined by many 206 00:24:31.980 --> 00:24:33.800 people from Plymouth. 207 00:24:33.800 --> 00:24:40.120 A group of purist Quakers refused to nurse wounded confederation soldiers who had been 208 00:24:40.120 --> 00:24:47.840 shipped to the island on the grounds that this would be taking part in an unjust war. 209 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:53.480 Governor Coddington, in a most un-Quaker-like reaction, forced them to do so. 210 00:24:53.480 --> 00:24:59.120 In a letter to the Massachusetts governor, Coddington noted wryly that Quakers were nursing 211 00:24:59.120 --> 00:25:28.480 Roger Williams remained as a captain and as part of a defensive garrison, but Cononchit, 212 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:32.320 Though bitter at almost all whites, told Williams that, 213 00:25:32.320 --> 00:25:38.600 You have been kind to us for many years, not a hair of your head shall be touched. 214 00:25:38.600 --> 00:25:46.480 And this in the midst of a desperate, inevitably hopeless war against overwhelming odds. 215 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:53.600 In June, Kananchet, son of Miantonomo, met the same fate as his father. 216 00:25:53.600 --> 00:26:00.000 Captured by the white forces, he was turned over to his own Indian enemies and was promptly 217 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:07.800 butchered. For the Narragansetts, the rest was mopping up. By the end of the year, almost 218 00:26:07.800 --> 00:26:14.120 all the women, children and aged had been slaughtered by the troops. The remaining warriors 219 00:26:14.120 --> 00:26:20.920 were fleeing north to Nipmuc territory. Just as the war was ending, Rhode Island was succumbing 220 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:26.640 to War Hysteria. Under pressure, the Quakers began to compromise their principles once 221 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:33.320 again. Governor Cottington, who had already forced purist Quakers to tend wounded Confederation 222 00:26:33.320 --> 00:26:40.760 soldiers, agreed in April to provide a military garrison at Providence, and Quaker assemblymen 223 00:26:40.760 --> 00:26:47.720 led in setting up this garrison. In May, Walter Clark, a compromising Quaker, was elected 224 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:54.200 Governor and stepped up military preparations. Roger Williams now provided for the coerced 225 00:26:54.200 --> 00:27:01.000 sale into servitude of the Indian prisoners and did the same to the hapless Indian refugees 226 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:07.360 who had found their way to Providence, formerly a town of refuge. Captain Roger Williams, 227 00:27:07.360 --> 00:27:13.080 among the handful of others who had remained in devastated Providence during the war, reaped 228 00:27:13.080 --> 00:27:18.740 the gains of the sales of the Indians into servitude. 229 00:27:18.740 --> 00:27:24.280 Was it for this that conanciate had spared the head of Roger Williams? 230 00:27:24.280 --> 00:27:29.040 It should be noted, however, that Williams refused to allow the Indians to be sold into 231 00:27:29.040 --> 00:27:30.840 permanent slavery. 232 00:27:30.840 --> 00:27:38.200 Apparently, nine years of involuntary servitude were not so long a term as to offend his libertarian 233 00:27:38.200 --> 00:27:39.200 instincts. 234 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:45.760 Finally, Williams and a few other magistrates held a military court-martial in August and 235 00:27:45.760 --> 00:27:49.220 executed several of the Indian prisoners. 236 00:27:49.220 --> 00:27:54.800 To the last Indian, Roger Williams warmly participated in the populace's demands for 237 00:27:54.800 --> 00:28:01.060 execution, and in the clearing of the town of all the Indians to the great peace and 238 00:28:01.060 --> 00:28:07.000 and Content of All, the All presumably not including the Indians who had been sold into 239 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.260 servitude. 240 00:28:09.260 --> 00:28:16.780 The elections of May 1677 demonstrated the political futility of compromise. 241 00:28:16.780 --> 00:28:22.220 The war party led by Benedict Arnold swept the Quakers out of office. 242 00:28:22.220 --> 00:28:27.380 One of the first acts of the new assembly was to repeal the exemption of conscientious 243 00:28:27.380 --> 00:28:45.380 The New Act thundered that some under-pretensive conscience had taken the liberty to void the power of the military and therefore of the civil power itself. 244 00:28:45.380 --> 00:28:56.380 As a result, Rhode Island was now destitute of required military forces, though who the new enemy was supposed to be was not explained. 245 00:28:56.380 --> 00:29:05.380 To return to King Philip's War, with the destruction of Canachet and the Narragansetts, only fighting to the north remained. 246 00:29:05.380 --> 00:29:13.380 There the Wampanoags and their allies fought valiantly on through the winter and spring of 1676, 247 00:29:13.380 --> 00:29:19.380 holding their own in raids and sorties against far superior military odds. 248 00:29:19.380 --> 00:29:26.540 But the Indian guerrilla warfare was defeated, in the long run, by the Indians' shortage 249 00:29:26.540 --> 00:29:32.720 of food. They did not have the food supplies to permit them to fight in moss. Throughout 250 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:39.140 the entire war, the Indians could find food only by pillaging settlements, and that source 251 00:29:39.140 --> 00:29:45.620 inevitably dried up after a few months. The Indians could not take the root of successful 252 00:29:45.620 --> 00:29:58.540 By April and May, the Nipmucks had been largely annihilated, and by the end of June the remainder 253 00:29:58.540 --> 00:30:03.260 of the Narragansetts had gone the way of the fallen Karnache. 254 00:30:03.260 --> 00:30:07.000 The war now began to accelerate toward its end. 255 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:12.900 Only King Philip and his Wampanoics remained, and he was deserted by informers and defecting 256 00:30:12.900 --> 00:30:14.540 tribesmen. 257 00:30:14.540 --> 00:30:20.620 Driven into his old lair at Mount Hope, Philip was betrayed by an informer. In a white sneak 258 00:30:20.620 --> 00:30:27.100 attack on August 12, King Philip was shot. His skull was publicly exhibited on a pole 259 00:30:27.100 --> 00:30:33.500 at Plymouth for the next quarter of a century. King Philip's war was thus over by the end 260 00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:39.880 of August 1676, and New England faced the question of what to do about those scattered 261 00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:45.520 Indians who had not been exterminated. Faced with the problem of Indian prisoners, New 262 00:30:45.520 --> 00:30:52.520 England did not hesitate. Mass deportation into slavery. Most of the Indian captives were 263 00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:59.320 shipped to the West Indies to be sold into slavery. But Indians, in contrast to African 264 00:30:59.320 --> 00:31:06.320 Negroes, were notoriously unsuited for slave labor and died quickly in slavery. Those slaves 265 00:31:06.320 --> 00:31:12.640 Those slaves for whom the Confederation could not find purchasers were set ashore on deserted 266 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:19.160 coast and abandoned to their fate. There were several objectors to this barbarity, including 267 00:31:19.160 --> 00:31:25.600 one of the heroes of the war, Captain Benjamin Church, and the saintly John Elliot, longtime 268 00:31:25.600 --> 00:31:31.560 friend and missionary to the Indians. Elliot warned the Confederation commissioners that 269 00:31:31.560 --> 00:31:38.520 To sell souls for money seemeth to me dangerous merchandise, but more typical was the sentiment 270 00:31:38.520 --> 00:31:43.480 of the colony's leaders concerning what to do with the little nine-year-old son of Philip, 271 00:31:43.480 --> 00:31:50.520 now a prisoner of war. The child was finally sold into slavery in the West Indies, but some ministers 272 00:31:50.520 --> 00:31:56.440 urged a more severe penalty. One minister insisted that the Bible did permit murder of innocent 273 00:31:56.440 --> 00:32:10.440 The Eminent Rev. Increase Mathur opined that though David had spared the infant haded, yet it might have been better for his people if he had been less merciful. 274 00:32:10.440 --> 00:32:19.440 Although the little heir to Philip was not killed outright, over a dozen leading Indian sacum prisoners were executed, 275 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:33.440 And the mostly friendly praying Indians were, during the war, herded into concentration camps from which they could not go further than a mile unless accompanied by a white man. 276 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:41.440 Violation meant imprisonment or death. Many of these were later conscripted into military service for the whites. 277 00:32:41.440 --> 00:33:01.440 And even after the war, the praying Indians, as well as other remaining Indians, were either herded into prescribed and supervised villages and deprived of their arms or ordered to remain as indentured servants in white families, there to be taught and inducted in the Christian religion. 278 00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:07.440 Now virtually wards of the white government, the Indians were prevented from assembling. 279 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:16.440 One Indian in each group of ten was appointed by the government to be held responsible for all the deeds of the others in his cell. 280 00:33:16.440 --> 00:33:31.440 The hard-line policy of total victory or the virtual extermination of the Indians of New England had, in little more than a year, succeeded in its highly dubious objective. 281 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:34.440 But at what cost? 282 00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:43.440 Fully six percent of the men of military age in New England or about a thousand men had been killed. 283 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:47.440 Twenty towns in New England had been totally destroyed. 284 00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:52.440 Of the ninety towns in Massachusetts and Plymouth, twelve had been destroyed. 285 00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:57.440 And fully half of the towns in New England had been severely damaged. 286 00:33:57.440 --> 00:34:00.440 The monetary cost was fearful. 287 00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:05.940 A total of £90,000 had been spent by the government to prosecute the war. 288 00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:16.940 The war debt of Plymouth alone has been calculated at greater than the total valuation of personal property of the colony at that time. 289 00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:25.440 A direct sequel to King Philip's War took place in the far north as soon as the Maine War had ended. 290 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:34.440 In the fall of 1675, the Tarentine Indians of Maine had ravaged Falmouth and other towns of the Maine coast. 291 00:34:34.440 --> 00:34:43.440 With food scarce, the Tarentines concluded a treaty with the Whites in December and promised to remain peaceful from then on. 292 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:47.440 The Indians complained, however, of ill-treatment at the hands of the Whites, 293 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:54.440 and particularly chafed at being prohibited from purchasing ammunition, so necessary for hunting game. 294 00:34:54.440 --> 00:35:00.440 The fall of Philip the next August stimulated the Tarantines to go on the war path again, 295 00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:06.440 and the English had to abandon every settlement between Casco Bay and the Penobscot, 296 00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:12.440 that is east of the densest concentration of settlements north of the Piscataqua. 297 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:20.440 Massachusetts organized a military force in the area headed by Major Richard Waldron, the eminent merchant of Dover. 298 00:35:20.440 --> 00:35:36.440 of Dover. At this point on September 15, 400 Indians came peacefully into the white camp to parlay for peace, and Major Waldron employed a typical white stratagem to seize them. 299 00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:42.040 Convivially, Waldron proposed a mock battle between the two forces. 300 00:35:42.040 --> 00:35:47.720 The Indians shot their muskets into the air as part of the war game, but the whites held 301 00:35:47.720 --> 00:35:52.760 their fire, surrounded the Indians and disarmed them. 302 00:35:52.760 --> 00:35:58.240 One half of the Indians, supposedly identified either as murderers of white colonists or 303 00:35:58.240 --> 00:36:03.360 as violators of the old treaty, were sent as prisoners to Boston. 304 00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:08.440 Naturally, the rest of the tribe promptly resumed its attacks and other main settlements 305 00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:15.280 were devastated or abandoned. The war continued during all of 1677, with little success for 306 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:21.280 the whites. Finally, the colonial government decided that a peace policy might be wiser 307 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:28.280 after all. In August 1677, the Indians concluded peace with Edmund Andros' representative 308 00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:57.280 The Indians agreed to surrender all prisoners without a ransom and to refrain from molesting the settlers. In return, the white governments were to pay the Indians an annual tribute of a pack of corn for each family settled in Maine. 309 00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:12.280 When King Philip's War began, Sir Edmund Andros decided to take advantage of New England's distraction by seizing Connecticut in behalf of New York, or at least the great bulk of Connecticut west of the Connecticut River. 310 00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:25.280 Since the Duke of York's charter was now brand new, cogent legal argument held that the Nichols Treaty of 1664, granting the territory west of the river to Connecticut, was now invalid. 311 00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:38.280 In this aggressive design, Andros was encouraged by the Duke of York. In May 1675, Andros informed the Connecticut Assembly of his intention of assuming jurisdiction. 312 00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:51.280 To Connecticut's reminder of the favorable award of the royal commission, Andros again replied that the Duke's charter superseded the commission. Connecticut again refused and suggested a friendly conference. 313 00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:58.280 Governor Andros, however, was not the man for friendly conferences when violence could be employed. 314 00:37:58.280 --> 00:38:02.280 He denounced Connecticut's stubbornness as virtual rebellion. 315 00:38:02.280 --> 00:38:14.280 With King Philip's War now breaking out in June, Andros informed the Connecticut Council on July 7 that he was dispatching, post-haste, his troops to the Connecticut River. 316 00:38:14.280 --> 00:38:19.280 Professor Don aptly summarizes the Connecticut reaction. 317 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:29.280 Whether Andros' soldiers were to be used against the Indians or against the Connecticut government was unclear, but the council members could guess. 318 00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:43.280 They sent a company of militia, commanded by Captain Thomas Bull, to Saybrook with the instructions to protect the seacoast from the approach of an enemy, either red-skinned or red-coated. 319 00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:50.760 Andros managed to reach Fort Saybrook first, but there he was confronted with armed and 320 00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:58.440 glowering local militiamen. Andros had expected to find the militia away fighting Indians 321 00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:05.520 and to seize the undefended fort. Instead, the militiamen were preparing their cannons. 322 00:39:05.520 --> 00:39:11.600 In this crisis, the Connecticut General Assembly stood fast. It directed Captain Bull to tell 323 00:39:11.600 --> 00:39:17.440 Tell Andros to go to Mount Hope if he really wanted to fight Indians, but to resist if 324 00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:24.680 he tried to land his troops. Andros, his bluff called, contented himself with reading 325 00:39:24.680 --> 00:39:31.040 aloud a proclamation of the Duke's Charter. The Connecticut force countered with a proclamation 326 00:39:31.040 --> 00:39:37.920 of its own, protesting Andros' illegal actions and calling Andros a disturber of the public 327 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:45.840 Peace. Feebly protesting this as slander, Andros sailed back home. Connecticut had successfully 328 00:39:45.840 --> 00:39:52.800 resisted the loss of its self-government by the imperialist seizure of Andros and New York. 329 00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:59.120 Interestingly enough, the Hartford government's reaction was to commend Bull and the other 330 00:39:59.120 --> 00:40:05.920 officers, but to complain that they acted too mildly. Andros's reading of the Duke's 331 00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:10.920 This charter, they said, should have been drowned out by the drums of Connecticut troops.